no matter how disconnected your view may be from reality. That's up to you. You can hope that mass murderers like Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Saddam, and their like will suddenly decide to be nice if only we're nice to them, but history suggests otherwise.

Human nature is what it is. We're good, bad, sometimes nice and sometimes evil. For all our claimed sophistication, inside we're little different from the cavemen who bashed each other with rocks. Failure to acknowledge the reality of human nature is why every utopian fantasy has failed up to and including communism. People will act in what they perceive as their own best interests despite all imploring them to act in the good of the collective. In the end, history has repeatedly shown that those imploring everyone to sacriface for the good of the collective have ended up living rather better than everyone else, hence Orwell's line from "Animal Farm", "All animals are equal, only some are more equal than others."

Sickness is bad. It's icky and people suffer. Should we outlaw doctors or do we work to improve medical care? Crime is bad. Should we outlaw cops or try to protect the honest from those who aren't? Likewise, war is bad. No, it's beyond bad, it's among the very worst things that humans do to one another. Should we sit around the campfire, holding hands and chanting "Kum by Yah", or should we work to protect ourselves from those who wish us harm?

Today's reality is that there are extremists out there who want to make the carnage of 9-11 look like a Girl Scout cookout. They want to kill and they aren't really particular who gets in the way, including innocent Muslims caught in the area. We can "try to understand why they hate us", but the simple answer is because we don't want to live under their warped view of Islam. That makes us the enemy and it isn't just Americans. When terrorists attacked a French oil tanker back in 2002, one of them said, We would have preferred to hit a U.S. frigate but no problem because they are all infidels."

How do you stop that mindset? Wishful thinking isn't going to cut it. Endless UN debates and worthless UN resolutions aren't going to cut it. Sanctions aren't going to cut it. The first step to solving any problem is to acknowledge it exists. As long as you live in denial, then you'll never be able to face the reality of the situation.